


The Fall of the Sparrow

by osprey_archer



Category: The Silver Branch - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1725239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/pseuds/osprey_archer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justin and Flavius were not the only fugitives Honoria helped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fall of the Sparrow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Firerose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firerose/gifts).



> Thanks to Sineala for beta-reading and Roman name help!

Flavius and Justin were not the only fugitives Honoria helped. They were not even the first: for only days after the news that Allectus was the new emperor reached Calleva, Caecilia Rufa turned to Honoria for help. 

Honoria knew Caecilia Rufa. Or at least, Honoria had seen the girl in the baths, for Caecilia Rufa’s flame red hair made her impossible to miss. But the flaming hair seemed the only bright thing about her. Caecilia Rufa never spoke, only hung shyly on the sides with her eyes flitting between the others as an anxious sparrow flits from crumb to crumb. 

But on this day, Caecilia Rufa came to Honoria’s house, a mantle drawn around her face, and spoke forthrightly. “They say you are a wise woman,” she said. “And I cannot think who else to ask for help.” 

“Pregnant already?” Honoria said, and frowned at the girl’s slender hips. “Well, and it will be a hard birth.” 

Caecilia Rufa blushed scarlet. “No,” she said, and twisted her thin hands together. “It is...it is that my husband is in danger. Allectus asked a favor of him once, and my husband refused it. And now that Allectus is become Caesar…” Her hands trembled, but she steadied herself and continued. “My husband tried to leave Calleva this morning with his caravan, as he often does. But the guards took the shipment in Allectus’s name, and would not let my husband pass the gate.” She drew her mantle across her face to hide her tears. “I am afraid. It is not only that he may lose all his holdings, as other rich men have done to Allectus; but that Allectus may not stop with his holdings, and demand his life as well.” 

She looked at Honoria appealingly, and Honoria saw that the girl half-hoped that Honoria would tell her she was taking fright at shadows. But Honoria did not think so; and she said, “You do right to fear for him. Allectus is not a man to forget a slight.”

Caecilia swayed like a lily in the breeze. But she steadied herself and said, “Everyone says you are a wise woman, Honoria. What can I do?” 

“Does your husband share your fears?” Honoria asked.

“Yes.”

“Then bid him dress up as the filthiest of beggars: it will get him past the gate. Tell him to escape to Gaul.” 

“Yes, but…” A shadow passed over Caecilia’s face. “He could have thought of that himself. It is that he is worried about how to bring me, too. He says he will not leave without me, though I have told him it is more dangerous if we go together. My hair makes me recognizable.” 

“It does,” Honoria said flatly. “And so he must go alone. You must tell him that you will be strong, and hold such of his holdings as you can in his absence. Tell him that if Allectus takes all things from you, then you will come to me, and I will deliver you faithfully back to your father’s roof.”

The shadow went out of Caecilia’s face. She smiled, and in that smile her anxious pale face seemed suddenly to gain strength. “Thank you,” she said. “With such a promise from such a one as you, I think I can convince him that he can leave without me.”

***

The next time Honoria saw Caecilia Rufa at the baths, the crowds parted for her as they might for a leper. Atronius, Allectus’s lieutenant in Calleva, still raged that Caecilia Rufa’s husband had slipped through his grip. Atronius had seized all the husband’s holdings, but for the house and Caeclia’s jewels, and even that had not abated his rage.

It was dangerous to speak to those whom Allectus and his men disliked. So the crowds glanced at Caecilia Rufa with pity, but drew away with fear, their eyes anywhere but her. 

Honoria looked steadily at Caecilia, and Caecilia, startled, looked back at her. Then Caecilia looked away, without even a nod that might draw attention to Honoria; but her gaze was no longer the gaze of a sparrow. She walked with the contained grace of a swan, and her eyes at last seemed as bright as her hair. 

***

It was not long after Honoria gave her opal bracelets to her two great-nephews that another fugitive came to her door. “There is a flower seller who wishes to see you, domina,” Volumnia said. 

“Is there? At this time of year?” said Honoria, lifting her head to the sound of the rattling winter wind. “And why have you not sent her away?” 

“I have tried, domina, but she will not go. She says Caecilia Rufa sent her, and she will stay at the back door until the centurions come to drag her away.” 

“Very well then,” Honoria said. “See her in.” 

Volumnia’s face creased with doubt. But she was accustomed to Honoria’s whims, and saw the girl in without protest. 

Honoria had wondered if this bird might come home to roost, but she had not expected it to return in the person of a slight dark flower seller with a hard-bitten prettiness and a proud lift to her head. “So Caecilia Rufa told you I am fond of irises, did she?” Honoria said. 

The flower seller frowned. “I do not come to sell flowers,” she said. “My sister Nissa is servant to Caecilia Rufa, and says that you can help me in the same manner that you helped her mistress.” She fixed her bird-bright eyes on Honoria. “My man is - ”

Honoria held up a hand. “No names,” she said. “No details. It is enough that he has displeased Allectus’s men and needs escape. It is better that I can tell them I know nothing of you, if they come asking.”

The flower seller let out a breath. “You will help, then? I have nothing to pay you.” 

“And so? There is not gold enough to make it worthwhile to run such a risk as going against Allectus, if I did not want to already. But I have a mind to thumb my nose at him.”

The flower seller smiled. “Well then,” she said. “My sister spoke truly of you, mistress.”

“Bring your man with an armload of flowers so it will not seem odd he accompanies you,” said Honoria. “I will invite friends for dinner to explain why I have need of flowers; yes, I will have Caecilia Rufa come, and others such as have run afoul of Allectus, and we will put the flowers to good use. Do you stay in the house until the dinner is over, and then we will discuss your escape.”

The flower seller’s man proved to be a young soldier, short and broad with a heavy brow and a fighter’s bulbous, much-broken nose. But above the nose, his gray eyes were gentle and confused, like the eyes of a favorite hunting dog who, for no reason he can see, has been thrown from his master’s hearth. Honoria had Volumnia bring them all the leftovers from the dinner, but although the flower seller ate heartily, her man could only pick at his food, and he moved with the awkward slowness of a man who has suffered a strong beating. 

“Surely it will blow over,” he said. “So Atronius has taken against me, so? I have served my cohort well; surely that must count for something, surely it will protect me. I cannot abandon them.”

“It is not you who abandons the cohort,” said the flower seller. “Your cohort has abandoned you to your fate. This time, you escaped, but next time you put a toe out of line Atronius will see you dead.” 

The soldier’s brow grew troubled. “But…” he said.

“Your woman is right,” said Honoria, in a voice unusually gentle for her. “Allectus is not as other men, and his lieutenants are not as other men either. If you have offended one of them he will never forget. You must escape, or die.” 

The man sighed. But Honoria was a great lady and spoke with authority, so he bowed his head before her. “What must I do?” 

“You will stay here a few days,” Honoria said. “And then, once they think you must have gone beyond the city already, you will leave Calleva together. And you must not stop at leaving Calleva; leave Britain altogether at Portus Adurni.”

The soldier nodded. But the flower seller frowned. “Begging your pardon,” she said. “But how will we pass the gate? Even if we wait, the soldiers will still know his face.”

“Not if he’s disguised,” Honoria said. She turned and called. “Volumnia! You haven’t yet given away that dress yet, have you? Fetch it, please.” 

The flower seller understood. But the soldier did not until Volumnia returned with a badly stained dress, and Honoria bade him to try it on. “But it’s women’s clothes,” he said. 

“Yes,” said Honoria. “The soldiers will never think to look for you in there.”

The soldier frowned and might have said no. But the flower seller said, “If you will not save yourself for yourself, then do it for me. Please do not throw your life at Atronius’s feet, and leave me all alone.” 

So a week later, a squat old woman carrying a basket of eggs left Calleva with her daughter. The soldiers at the gate teased the pretty daughter, but they did not give a second glance to the ugly hag with her misshapen nose and the scowl deepening between her brows as they pinched the girl’s cheeks. 

At last the centurion said impatiently, “Come now, there’s a line waiting.” So the girl and the hag went through; and it was not until they were far from town that they stopped behind a bush for the hag to change back into men’s clothing. 

They went into Portus Adurni; and there they met Paulinus, who recruited the ex-soldier as muscle for the crossings to Gaul, and the flower seller as a messenger, for no one suspects a girl of anything. 

And so it was that the flower seller returned to Calleva, and to Honoria’s house. 

***

“I name you no names,” said the flower seller. “But in Portus Adurni, yes, and in other parts of Britain, there are those who have no love for Allectus. Happy they are to help fugitives escape to Gaul; but the one who leads us says he will be happier still, if you would send more such as my man to aid in the resistance.”

Honoria inclined her head. “These are evil days,” she said. “And I would be happy to offer those who oppose Allectus any aid that I can.”


End file.
